


Things That Won't Go Away

by detri



Series: Kaiser's Fall [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Ambiguously Shippy, Angst, Gen, Past Sexual Abuse, Sharing a Bed, ryo has issues with sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 10:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20619200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detri/pseuds/detri
Summary: In Dark World, Ryo tells Edo something he thought he'd never tell anyone.





	Things That Won't Go Away

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really ship these two myself, since their age gap is in a weird place and Edo feels like a kid character to me, but a lot of people asked about them as I was writing my last Kaiser fic and I did want to explore their relationship since they're so super close by season 3
> 
> Edo is a little-devil-type character lol

Edo had gotten more bold since they'd come to Dark World.

Ryo must have missed his chance to tell him no, the first time, when they had slept on the ground and Edo had rolled over closer to him. He had thought Edo had been asleep, since it was such an uncharacteristic action. But he kept doing it. When they had happened upon the mansion, and taken refuge in it, Ryo had made one bed for himself, and then Edo had just gotten into it. He didn't know what to do about that. If he told Edo that sleeping next to each other wasn't okay anymore now that they were in a bed, he was sure Edo would just laugh in his face and challenge him about it, and he didn't want to have that kind of argument. Not that he hated arguing with Edo. In fact, it was refreshing having someone around who didn't cringe at his every movement and shrink from the sound of his voice. But the day's travel had been arduous, especially with his heart. He just wanted to sleep.

And just when he closed his eyes, he felt Edo scoot closer and bury his face between his shoulder blades.

He didn't know what to do about that.

Just the fact that he was with Edo Phoenix in the first place was strange enough. Leave the other world they had been sucked into out of it—it had been alien and disorienting to spend so much time with him even in the one they'd come from. He had almost hated Edo Phoenix. After that catastrophic loss, it had taken so much mental energy to keep the hate focused on himself and his failure and the losses that had continued to rack up while he was in a tailspin trying to respect his opponents. And then...things had happened. He was too busy thinking about himself for a while. Trying to stay sane. He had failed. So much of last year was just a blur.

Then, while he was trying to reestablish himself in the pro league, there had been the first health scare.

He must have looked incredibly lost after that for Edo Phoenix to try to approach him.

Since they had last met, something must have happened to the Prince of Duelists. He seemed a little more thoughtful, a little more humble. Just as confident, though. Just as sharp-tongued. It was easy to snark at him. He took a sharp comment as easily as he could come up with one in return. Ryo was surprised how easy it was to be around him. It was like Edo didn't care who he was, like that match had never happened. Of course, it might have never meant anything to Edo. Winning against him might have been rote, just a part of his job.

Thinking about that wasn't any good now. Ryo buried it. If he regretted losing that match, he would be crushed under the weight of everything that had come afterward. And he was already just barely managing to hold it together.

Edo was so small. Laying next to him like this, Ryo was acutely aware of how he was about the same age as Sho, and only a little taller. But he was so stupidly cocky. He acted like nothing could touch him. Under the cloaks they wore to shield themselves from the biting cold of a world with no sun, he was still wearing a fucking suit. As if there was anyone to impress.

Ryo moved further away from him, almost to the edge of the bed. It wasn't right for Edo to be so close to him, so casual and off his guard. He was sure Edo would only be flippant if he said something about how he'd killed people, or how he was forged in the hell of the underground, or something, but the real reason was something he thought he'd take with him to his grave, a grave that was so, so close.

“You're going to fall off the edge,” Edo said. The first words he'd said to him since they'd laid down here.

“Good, more room for you,” Ryo said. Edo swatted him.

“Don't be like that. What, too good to share a bed with me?”

Ryo sighed. Edo slid a finger playfully up and down his back.

“Or not good enough?”

“You need to stop being like that.”

“You could have complained earlier.”

There it was. Sometimes talking to Edo was like talking to himself. And yet, here he was doing it again, even knowing what would come next. “It's different like this.”

“It's still just as cold as it was outside. How are we supposed to find Judai if we freeze to death?”

Ryo knew that if he rolled over to face Edo, he'd be looking right into that firey but ultimately nonthreatening expression he could only call a pout. The fact that Edo was pouting was exactly the kind of thing that made his point. But he knew enough to know that you couldn't tell a child they were being childish and not expect an argument.

Edo scooted closer and ran his hand up and down Ryo's side. Ryo felt his heart jump in a way that was extremely alarming, and then, as Edo kept stroking his back in a weird soothing kind of gesture, he felt a coldness settle in over his body that was much more frightening. It was a docility that had been trained into him. If he was just still and let it happen, he would be rewarded. Just as long as he didn't struggle.

“Stop touching me.” He managed to creak the words out.

“What's wrong? You don't like it?” Edo was still teasing him—he was being stupid, stupid, frustratingly stupid. Dangerously stupid.

“What are you trying to accomplish? You're not going to like it. You need to stop.”

“How do you know I won't like it?” Edo traced a pattern on his back with his fingertip. Ryo could just imagine the smug look on his face.

Ryo took a shaky breath. “Edo. Have you ever had sex?”

Edo stopped. “Why, should I have?” His voice was laughably fake-casual.

“You haven't, have you? Because if you had, you'd know it was dirty and ugly and not cute.”

“Who said I was trying to have sex with you? Geez, what's your damage?”

“Just forget it.” Ryo tried to climb out of bed, but he was still weak and malleable, and just collapsed. Edo pulled him back down to the sheets.

“Are you okay? Is it your heart?”

“No, just—stop touching me!” Ryo struggled away, and then hit the floor, for real this time.

Edo was looking down at him from the bed, with concern, and undisguised pity.

“Don't look at me like that.” Ryo turned, hiding his face.

“What happened to you?”

Edo offered him his hand, and after a second, Ryo took it. Edo let go as soon as possible.

“I'm not about to burden you with it.”

“I want to hear about it. Aren't we friends?” It was the first time Edo had used the word, the first time the subject had been broached between them.

“...Yeah. We are. But you shouldn't hear about it.”

“Ryo.” Edo glared at him, and that glare was backed up by something Ryo couldn't put a name to, something immaterial that declared he had been through more than most kids his age. “I don't know if you noticed, but we're in a parallel dimension that's in the middle of a war. You and I have both seen, frankly, a lot of shit since we've been here, and I don't know if you know, but I'm no sheltered rich boy, alright?” He moved over where he sat on the bed, letting Ryo take up as much space as he needed without getting in his way. “I can tell that whatever you're holding onto has been burdening you, and I want to help carry that burden.”

Ryo didn't speak for a while. If he took Edo up on this offer—if he could really be allowed to just talk about it—First of all, did Edo have any idea what he was asking? If he told him, maybe it would really hurt him.

He glanced at Edo and saw the strong yet gentle look in his eyes.

Fine, Ryo thought. If he's messed up by it, that's his problem.

“You know I got mixed up in underground duels after I dropped from the pro league.”

“Yeah.” Everyone knew that. It was a part of his persona now, his image.

“Well...it's hell down there. It's much worse than you think. I didn't just duel.”

“Yeah, you...it's more than just dueling, isn't it? It's torture. I've seen the collars.”

“There was, like...a sex ring.”

Edo blinked, and then slowly nodded.

“There's horrible people down there, these fucking sadists...DD was one of them too. It doesn't even feel real when I think about it, even now, it's like a weird dream I had...I got all sucked into it, I don't know what else to tell you. I didn't even feel like a person anymore, after a while. And then I left and it was over and I just kept going like that, like an addict. Like I liked it.”

“DD...” Edo drew his legs up to his chest.

“There were people there…there was someone who kept talking about you, and wanted you to be there, like he wished you would...do what I did, and he was so...I don't know, I don't know.”

It was the first time Ryo had let himself think about that man, Mr. Crane. That creep. That predator. He'd tried so hard not to think about it. The memories would come back now, he didn't want them to, he wished he had never seen the things that man had showed him.

“So just don't touch me like that. It makes me feel like him.” Ryo spoke even quieter. He didn't want to hear the words coming out of his own mouth, as if saying them made them more real. “I'm worried I might end up like that.”

Edo rolled over onto his side, still curled into a ball. He didn't say anything.

_I knew it. _Ryo felt filthy. He'd told Edo his deepest fucking secret, and Edo was a kid. He'd fucked up. He'd gotten it all dirty: himself, Edo, the bed between them, all the time they'd spent in Dark World. Edo would look back on all of it and feel disgusted, because he was a disgusting person, and they'd been so close for so long. He wished his heart would give out right now to spare him the shame of having to see the look on Edo's face, whatever it would be when he turned around.

Finally Edo spoke, in a kind of wavery voice.

“...Sorry.”

Ryo didn't dare move.

“I had no idea.”

He paused before speaking again.

“I was out of bounds. I guess I shouldn't...” He searched for words. “I guess I should rethink some stuff.”

“You didn't know. It's okay.”

“Even if it's okay, I still feel bad about it.” Edo shifted on the bed, further away. “Do you want me to sleep somewhere else?”

“You'll be cold.” Ryo let just a little of his sardonic tone climb back into his voice.

“I'll live.” Edo snarked back.

Ryo let himself steal a glance at Edo's face. He was shaken. But he wasn't destroyed. He still had steel in his eyes.

“Edo.”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Edo smiled. He made as if to get closer to Ryo, but then checked himself and stopped. “Thank you for being my friend.”

“I could say the same to you.”

It wasn't the time right now. But this feeling, the warmth that was clawing him up inside and forcing him to nearly smile even despite all of this, it wasn't going to go away. Just like the pain that had closed him up in the first place, the budding happiness he sheltered in his fragile heart was too deep-rooted to easily go away.


End file.
